Camas Flowers at Lolo Pass

We waited eagerly for news about the camas flowers this spring, a yearly event not to be missed if you are a wildflower aficionado as I am. There is a website that gives updates, and, finally, the time of blooming was announced, and I had a day off at the right time. We drove up to Lolo Pass, on the Montana - Idaho border and found lots of other fans of the camas flower already at the Visitor Center. We had planned to find a trail to hike on in the area, and did that before going out to Packer Meadows where the camas grows.

There were so many other kinds of wildflowers blooming all along the trail and everywhere. I was especially happy to find a Jacob's Ladder, one I've seen pictures of, but not ever found for myself.

At last, a lake of blue!
The quamash, an Indian word, was a food source for many native peoples in the western United States and Canada. After being harvested in the autumn, once the flowers have withered, the bulbs were pit-roasted or boiled. A pit-cooked camas bulb looks and tastes something like baked sweet potato, but sweeter. When dried, the bulbs could be pounded into flour. Native American tribes who ate camas include the Nez Perce, Cree, Coast Salish, Lummi, and Blackfoot tribes, among many others.

A close-up! I was reluctant to squash any of these gorgeous flowers, but I did carefully get on my knees to snap this photo.

Lewis and Clark, we read, who followed the Lolo Pass trail along with the natives, also camped in Packer Meadows in 1806 and learned from their Native American friends to dig and eat the bulbs.

I think everyone else was also reluctant to make paths into the sea of blue, but there was this one well used path out into the middle of the meadow. It was like we all couldn't get enough of the beauty surrounding us!

I am drowning in this stunning profusion of flowers, on my knees here. We were so happy that we got to see the blooming at its height. I read that a mere few days later the flowers had begun to fade.

Almost to Nebraska

 Mr. Keith had a hankerin' for a short drive today, so we packed up the camera, the iPad and various other necessities and headed east towards the Nebraska border. The sign said it was 35 miles to Pine Bluffs, almost on the border of Wyoming and Nebraska. I'm always intrigued by water towers so when we saw this one about 2 miles off the I-80 freeway we decided to see what was in the town of Burns. Wow! Did we get a surprise!

 This little prairie town boasts 301 people. The whole town was pristine, so neat and clean, no shabby buildings or junk lying around anywhere. We toured the whole town just to see if there was a breach in the perfection. There wasn't! It was unreal! This beautiful park is right between both sides of Main Street, which is only as long as what you see in the photo. There was no sign of litter or disrepair.

 This classic church, a Lutheran, was one of several churches in town. We wondered where the cars were, since it was close to 11:00 on a Sunday morning. Maybe they met earlier. None of the churches had cars in front. Hmm!

 Proceeding on our journey, always on a back road if possible, we saw this stucco house made to look like Indian teepees.

 Finally, we saw the town of Pine Bluffs coming up. It's easy to see where the name came from. A long line of pine tree covered bluffs rise up from the prairie right there. We found not much of interest in town except this old gas station that seemed to be a museum for old gas pumps. No room for Pete to give service there!

 The outside of this restaurant is nothing special to look at, but here's where we had lunch. It's along the freeway at an old truck stop with nothing much else there. What drew us was the sign, "Indian Restaurant, American Restaurant". We were hoping it meant native American type food, but it was India Indian food. We thought that was kind of odd, way out on the prairie. There were several Indians there having lunch. We had plain ol' American food, though the other looked really good.

Another water tower — this one at a truck stop just up the road east from the KOA. 

Sapp Bros. boasts one of the best steak restaurants in the area, T-Joe's. We've eaten there once and will again. We recommend it to any of our campers who ask where they can get a good meal. We had a great, 3 hour, 80 mile trip today. Looking forward to more!

White Buffalo

Here is a photo of a rare, white buffalo born at Bear Country last spring. He attracts quite a bit of attention from our visitors.

From Wikipedia, "American buffalo (technically bison) are normally brown in color. Rarely, white buffalo are born. White Buffalo are considered to be sacred signs in several Native American religions, and thus have great spiritual importance in those cultures and are visited for prayer and other religious ceremonies." 

I am told that a Native American group from the Black Hills area did come to Bear Country this spring and held a ceremony to honor this white buffalo. I saw the colorful ribbons they tied to the fence as part of their rites.

This is a goofy picture Keith got one day through the fence. It may be a little too close for comfort! These guys are powerful!